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17173 series: G-1 2012 bits and pieces (1)

Dotaland note: This is a mini-series from a 17173 writer, documenting bits and pieces of the events and happenings leading up to the G-1 League and Dota2 this year. This particular one shows a bit of the general buildup a few months prior to G-1 League 2012 starting.

The second time I heard from Pikachu (Pikaxiu, Chinese commentator) was a month after the original. The ripples of the battle in Seattle had yet to settle, and he was already brewing up China’s first own Dota2 competition.

The International 2, was a competition, but more so it was like Valve holding a massive forum to recruit followers across the world to their cause, akin to the way Steve Jobs might hold an Apple event. And I had also been infected with the emotions fueling all this, so when I discussed things with Pikachu, I took the stance of a braindead fanboy and was a furious proponent of Dota2. Yet, considering the reality of the current situation, from the lower player and viewer base, to the incomplete transition of teams participating in the scene, to the question of Dota2’s official Chinese partner… holding a Dota2 competition was going to have significant challenges.

Objectively speaking, neither Dota2 nor TI2 are or were perfect. It was just that Valve’s unprecedented effort and dedication would quickly win over what was originally a comparatively unsupported and tough Dota1 scene, and ultimately let these original Dota1 players finally find a sense of safety, or maybe it was a sense of belonging. This convinced millions of Dota believers to transfer their faith to the Valve camp. Viewing things from this perspective, the 1.5M dollar prize pool was a worthy expenditure for Valve.

After confirming the G-1 League’s structure, the most pressing issue at hand was of course which teams would participate. Even though ForLove had recently announced their intentions to get into Dota2, their lack of offline training and teamwork showed, their players did not have enough experience with Dota2. The results in the preliminaries showed this: neither ForLove nor Noah’s Ark have matched their Dota1 skills in Dota2.

As for WE and EHOME, they had both lost players and were in a state of roster limbo after TI2, so they would be unavailable in the near term. Add in DT, Tyloo, and Royal Club, these ACE clubs declined to participate for one reason or another, and all that was left were iG, LGD, DK, and TongFu these four representatives recently returned from Seattle.

As a result, we had to invite foreign teams. Luckily, the Singapore server has always been acceptable for the entire greater Asia area in terms of delay and ping. And so, in a bit of a hectic and random fashion, this iteration of the G-1 League became half of an international competition in itself. At this time, coincidentally, it was also nearly a full year from the last international Dota competition held in China — WDC.

At the time, Pikachu was doing another 17173 event called UGT, so his energies were a bit stretched. On the other hand, I was not unfamiliar with the foreign scene and Dota2, and I’d say my English was adequate for the job, so Pikachu gave me the job of communicating with foreign teams.

Realizing that I could personally be involved in China’s first Dota2 competition, I can’t help but feel the chemicals in my body reacting, leaving me with an excitement that reminds me of that bit of poetry from one of our textbooks back in school: “In the depths of a dream, thoughts return to a camp ringing with the sounds of warhorns. The warriors are well fed, the music evocative of a majestic morale. This is an autumn display of military might on the battlefield.”